There is a rematch of a Grand Slam final in the U.S. Open bottom-half quarterfinals on Wednesday, but it is not Roger Federer vs. Novak Djokovic. It is Marin Cilic vs. Kei Nishikori, while Djokovic runs into unseeded John Millman.
(7) Marin Cilic vs. (21) Kei Nishikori
Outside of the Big 4 or Big 5, Cilic vs. Nishikori is arguably the best U.S. Open rivalry of the current era. These familiar foes have faced each other 14 times heading into Wednesday’s quarterfinal contest, including three times at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. Nishikori prevailed 5-7, 7-6(6), 3-6, 7-6(3), 6-1 in a five-hour marathon eight years ago, Cilic won 6-3, 6-4, 6-7(3), 6-3 two seasons later, and the Croat captured his first career Grand Slam title with a 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 rout in 2014. Overall, Nishikori leads the head-to-head series 8-6 and 6-5 on hard courts.
Cilic was mostly dominant en route to the quarterfinals, hammering Marius Copil, Hubert Hurkacz, and David Goffin without dropping a set. But the seventh seed endured one massive scare, escaping a two-set deficit to withstand Alex de Minaur’s upset bid 4-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-5 during third-round action. Nishikori lost only one set in victories over Maximilian Marterer, Gael Monfils, Diego Schwartzman, and Philipp Kohlschreiber. The world No. 19 from Japan is bidding for his third career U.S. Open semifinal appearance, but Cilic still puts him to shame in terms of slam experience with runner-up finishes at Wimbledon (2017) and the Australian Open (2018) to go along with his title at this tournament. Those factors along with Cilic’s power that works extremely well in these conditions should allow him to survive a tough one.
Pick: Cilic in 4
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(6) Novak Djokovic vs. John Millman
This was supposed to be Djokovic vs. Roger Federer when the draw was revealed almost two weeks ago. But as Millman said after beating Federer for by far the biggest win of his career on Monday night, “that’s a great thing about tennis, that’s the great thing about sport: there’s always upsets that can happen.” A monumental upset did happen, as the 55th-ranked Australian recovered from a set and a break down to shock Federer 3-6, 7-5, 7-6(7), 7-6(3). Millman had never even been to the fourth round of a major in his career, but the 29-year-old earned his shot at the 20-time slam champ thanks to previous victories over Jenson Brooksby, Fabio Fognini, and Mikhail Kukushkin.
Millman’s reward is another night session in Arthur Ashe Stadium, this time for a second career meeting with Djokovic. The sixth-ranked Serb took their only previous encounter 6-2, 6-1 just a couple of months ago on the grass of Queen’s Club. Djokovic is an even heavier favorite this time around, as his comeback from a 2017 injury now includes titles at Wimbledon and the Cincinnati Masters. Maintaining his fine form, the two-time U.S. Open champion is back in the quarterfinals following mostly routine defeats of Marton Fucsovics, Tennys Sandgren, Richard Gasquet, and Joao Sousa. It will be tough for Millman to bounce back from such a monumental occasion especially with Djokovic on the other side of the net, so one-way traffic can be expected.
Pick: Djokovic in 3 losing 11-14 games
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WWW?
Definitely not…
Nevermind.
Joker on his way to lift the trophy ….as it seems like
I picked Nadal at the begining , but now it seems that joko is the most one who has the chances to win
Same here
Cilic in 3; Fed in 4.
Cilic in four Djoko in three (P.S. WHY ROGER WHY)
Nole get the win – maybe takes him 5 sets if he’s tired.
Kei the tsame. (maybe takes 5 sets)
Millman (journeyman) might win 4 games per set
Nishikori
Cilic in 4. Djoko in 3. Novak # 14 GS the way it looks now
Cilic ml + Suarez Navarro +4.5
Cilic ml + Djoker u30
Humidity is 82 percent tonight for djokos match
Rain in forecast?
slight chance…
Nole can win in 4 or 5 but Millman is a tough sob and will make life a hell for the Joker.
If Millman can destroy Fed the Goat(who all of you said will win in 3 sets vs Millman and also has the greatest chance to win the US Open) in 4 sets just think what Millman will do to Novak?
Millman has very strong strong chance of upsetting Novak because of the below reasons. But not betting on the same. Just like the over to hit.
1) Millman is high on confidence having beaten 3 good players(Federer, Kukushkin and Fabio Fognini being an underdog!
Infact Fabio Fognini is the far better player than all the 4 players Nvak beat so far. So, you can judge at how a level is Millman in his confidence and skill level.
f you are wonder struck by the 2 set win on Grass and expect a similar result today then you can be mistaken as Millman has the skill, confidence and fitness to take this to the 4th or the 5th set and anything can happen.
2) Novak does not like high heat or humidity and doesn’t perform well in this environment. Millman thrives in these situations as he comes from a very hot area of Australia and likes these extreme heat/humidity conditions!
So, if the match goes beyond 1.5 to 2 hours or into the 4th set, Millman is going to be the fresher fighter and can win! Just see how the humidity affected Fed’s performance and his ability to think clearly. It can happen to Novak also who is NOT young anymore. He tells that all the time in his Interviews! Novak is in his middle age at 31 years old with weak scrawny legs…which becomes tired if played for 1.5 to 2 hours unlike the strong tree trunk like legs of Millman! Millman’s body is toughened in a mill!lol
3) Novak is seemingly TIRED from playing too many matches nearly non-stop from Wimbeldon and played nearly 20 matches in the last 1 month. That is very taxing on an old 31 years old body of Novak.
4) Any sensible player takes 1 tournament rest after winning a tournament. Novak was tired after winning the Wimbeldon but continued and won another Tournament in Cincinnati. So, he has no energy left and is running on fumes currently and playing with pure will power attracted by the big lat paycheck of the year in the form of the US Title.
Novak cannot continue on fumes any longer. Millman is the far fresher fighter. But Novak can win with his superior experience and with his tough serbian will power! But the win can come in 4 or 5 sets and will leave Novak with no energy for next round and will be an easy meat for his next opponent!
4) Millman is the far stronger, fresher, faster athlete. This one factor is enough for Millman to be in the fight until the end of the 4th or 5th set and can possibly win it!
5) There is not much difference in the skill level between Novak and Millman now on this slow hard court of US Open! A different kind of skill level is needed for playing on the speedy Wimbeldon courts. did you guys observe the skill level of Millman in his match vs Federer! He outbeat the GOAT in every aspect of tennis with intelligence, speed, clever counter attacks, passing shots, beautiful variation of serve etc.
Millman has practised with Federer and learnt a lot of new skills besides having some new team members and training strategies! All this will ensure that Millman will have a good chance of winning today’s match. But not betting on his win. Just that he will push the over and cover the spread like he did vs the GOAT!
This is a tournament of UPSETS! BE WARNED! If you just go by the Big name of the Top Players like that of Anderson, Federer etc. then big loses are in store! current performance, skill level, energy level etc all need to be taken into consideration…and NOT just BIG (soon to tumble) NAMES and old H2H’s!LOL
BOL
Look at the history of knowing off two of the top players in slams back-to-back. It doesn’t happen. Why? Because it’s that hard. He is not beating Novak.
I meant to say “knocking” off two top players back-to-back. *
this is tennis, no disgusting moonballing. thought too Cilic had this in his bag.
I don’t disagree Djoker – but I do hope you are wrong 😀
Millman does appear to be more acclimated to the conditions than most. And I worry about Nole.
Why don’t they close the roof like they do at AO when there’s an excessive heat warning? Day after day running around in that kind of heat can cause serious problems. They should have closed the roof and turned on the AC days ago.
Nishikori has the worst serve… He rolls second serves in at like 70 mph. It’s actually incredible to me that Kei has been able to do as well as he has with such a weak serve. If only the guy was just like 2 inches taller even, he could be a whole other animal of a player. But he’s done amazing given his relative physical disadvantage!
Are you at the stadium again Kevin?
Yes, Ratcliff, I am. 🙂 I’m quite lucky. I was originally going to go to just the night session tonight, as I originally assumed I would get to see Fed-Djokovic. But once it became Millman-Djokovic, I decided I’d rather see Kei-Cilic. And while the quality of tennis has been rather poor in my opinion, it has been a competitive match which is great! So the last two matches I saw have been 5 setter. The Osaka match was so fast, and it took me a while to get here, it was over before I even arrived! 🙁
You lucky lucky person!! I would be like a kid at Disneyland to have a ticket for today. I love Osaka. And would like to see the Keys vs Suarez-Navarro match. CSN has a crazy strong one-handed backhand. She is very small but she’s like Kei – makes the most of what she’s got. Not sure she’ll beat Madison Keys though
Naomi Osaka has a bigger serve than Kei does. I think she’s close to 6 feet tall too. Kei makes the most of what he’s got. I love Kei.
It’s hard not to think that whichever one of these guys faces Novak, they will likely lose to him… Although I think Cilic would have a better shot against Novak.
Novak would absolutely tee off on all Kei’s sub-100mph serves… and there’s a lot of them. I understand that it is Kei, not Cilic, who has actually beaten a prime Novak in the SF of the US Open. I just don’t see Kei as physically at the level he was a few years ago. It sucks he’s had to struggle so badly with injury. You can see it- he’s just lost a slight edge I believe. It sucks, cuz I like Kei a lot.
Kei has served better at many times through his career. Today he really appears to be in slow motion and I should think Cilic wins this. But Cilic has his own problems.
As to Nole winning. We shall see. I hope he can make it past Millman.
Kei breaks!
Yes Kei!!